When should you upvote, and when should you flag? Should you vote for yourself, or not? Why or why not? The Steem Pope is here with guidance!
Upvotes
Primarily, upvoting rewards the people you upvote. Secondarily, the one doing the upvoting becomes eligible for curation rewards. The only downside is that each upvote slightly diminishes the weight of subsequent upvotes, and you may need to wait a while for your vote power to recharge. However, this is offset by the ability to reduce the weight behind your votes once you achieve enough Steem Power, so you can decrease your vote weight to stretch the number of votes you can make.
I have no problem with minnows upvoting their own posts, although as a small dolphin, I am beginning to ponder whether I should continue upvoting my own work. On the one hand, I upvote things I like, and I like what I write. On the other hand, I am starting to feel a bit uncomfortable just giving myself magical internet money right off the bat. Your mileage may vary. Do be aware that there are curators who look to support posts that are not self-upvoted too, so you may be foregoing a curation trail if you self-vote your posts.
Do not upvote your own comments on your own posts or the posts of others unless it is to counterbalance an unjust flag. It makes you look egotistical - especially if you comment, upvote yourself, and do not upvote the original post.
In summary:
- Upvote posts you like.
- Upvote comments you like.
- Upvote your own posts or not as you see fit, but it starts to look fishy if you upvote yourself by a large sum.
- Do not upvote your own comments unless it is in response to an unjust flag.
One final rule: Don't upvote posts unless you read them. The serious bloggers here are interested in getting readers for their writing as much as STEEM rewards. This is also one of the reasons spammy comments from people who obviously haven't read the post in question often annoy bloggers.
Flags
Technically, a flag is a downvote, and is just the inverse of an upvote. It removes rewards from a post, and potentially lowers the poster's reputation. However, I advise caution in using flags. They should be reserved for very specific infractions.
Spam
If someone's posts or comments are frequent and devoid of substance, it may be worthy of a flag. This is especially true for empty comments like "great post!" However, be aware that there are some users who leave honest short compliments, so don't be too hasty to flag such comments without first checking the user's habits and interaction overall.
Abuse
If someone is insulting, threatening, trolling, or otherwise mistreating other Steemians, flag them. We need to police the community ourselves first and foremost.
Miscategorized posts
This primarily covers NSFW content that is not properly labeled. Pornography, artistic nudity, violence, and profanity are all NSFW. However, there are also Steemians who use popular tags in posts that are about unrelated topics. If I used the photography tag in this post, it would be tag spam, because this is not a photography post.
Plagiarism
This is a big issue on Steemit. If you didn't make it, provide attribution. If you're just copy/pasting someone else's work, even with attribution, you're still a plagiarist. If you're a plagiarist, you deserve a flag. Note that this is distinct from fair use, such as substantive commentary using selected quotations to illustrate a book review, or embedding a Youtube video as part of a larger post.
Fraud
If someone is running a scam, flag it. This can include pyramid schemes, phishing attempts, promotion of malware-infested sites, or anything else.
Disagreement over post rewards
This is a thorny issue, and I hesitate to take a support it. However, if spam, abuse, plagiarism, or mis-categorized posts are getting a huge payout, flag away.
I do suggest leaving a comment explaining the purpose of a flag. Some things, such as any tags after the first, can be fixed. Sometimes minnows make mistakes because they see so many others doing the same things, and just don't realize that it is poor netiquette. If you find plagiarism or abuse, consider reporting it to 
There are some basic situations where a flag is not warranted. Disagreement with a post does not warrant a flag. A civil comment presenting a counterargument is in order if you think any response is warranted at all. If you are flagged for spam, abuse, plagiarism, etc. and the flagger leaves a comment explaining why the flag was applied, flagging the courtesy comment is not warranted either, and is likely to result in more flags.
Your thoughts?
What are your personal policies on flags and voting? I usually upvote posts at 100% vote power, upvote comments at 10% vote power, and flag somewhere in the ballpark of the post or comment rewards accrued to counter balance the illegitimate earnings. Egregious and flagrant repeated abuse gets a full flag. I am open to new ideas on how you vote, and I may be willing to adjust my own voting/flagging patters based on your feedback.
May the Blog be with you, and may the Blockchain bless you. Go forth, and create original content! Amen.
Other sermons:
Posting
Resteeming
Commenting
Resteeming Scams
NSFW content (Mildly NSFW)